Big shake-up in Queensland’s most expensive suburbs

The list of most expensive suburbs to buy in Queensland has had a shake-up. Picture: Supplied

After years of domination, inner-city Teneriffe has been dethroned as the most expensive place to buy a home in Queensland, with latest data showing fresh faces in the top 10.

After years of being overshadowed by inner-city luxury “newbies” like Newstead and New Farm, one of the traditional bluechips — Ascot — has snatched the crown as the suburb with the highest median house price in the state.

In a sweeping move, an array of fresh faces have hit the top 10 most expensive places to buy in Queensland, including Sunshine Beach in Noosa, Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast, Chevallum on the Sunshine Coast, and Upper Brookfield in Brisbane’s west.

REA Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said Brisbane could be in for a major ramping up of demand in 2019.

“Brisbane is holding up a lot better than Sydney and Melbourne. It’s up against the same sort of challenges as those two with unit oversupply, credit crunch but it didn’t get as expensive and there does seem to be quite a lot of jobs growth supporting market demand,” she told The Courier-Mail.

“So the outlook for the premium market is quite good. With the highest median house price at $1.6m that’s still way better than Sydney and Melbourne, and if there is jobs growth as well we could see a ramping up in Brisbane.

Ms Conisbee said investors were also “really spooked” by Sydney and Melbourne in 2018 so were “likely to be looking across that South East Queensland region for opportunities this year”.

51 Palm Avenue, Ascot, is on a 1,138 sqm block and on the market for $3.5m.

31 Beatrice Terrace, Ascot, is for sale at $2.85 million.

Ray White Ascot agent Damon Warat said Ascot was coming off a great year, with demand surging.

“Our biggest difficulty as agents now is trying to find houses to sell,” he said.

“Ascot is an area with a culture, a lot of character homes, it’s got a great community and great schooling — all these factors set it apart from its neighbours.

“It’s more of a family suburb than Teneriffe and New Farm. It’s generally where professionals aspire to move to before they start a family. We get a lot who work overseas and come back to have a family home in the area.”

CoreLogic principal researcher Cameron Kusher said while “Brisbane certainly does have an affordability advantage relative to the southern capital cities”, job prospects would be key to further increases in migration.

“Weaker career prospects outside of Sydney and Melbourne is likely to weigh on any decision to move to Qld from the southern states. Our belief is that through 2019 housing market conditions will be similar to 2018’s conditions with the possibility that value growth may accelerate a little late in the year.”

75 Charlton Street, Ascot, is on the market for $2.99 million.

This renovated home at 19 Upper Lancaster Rd, Ascot, is currently on the market.

Carl Mogridge, director at The Property Agency, and his wife Dr Philippa Mogridge, a dentist, both 34, plan to move to Ascot in March from their current home in Sydney’s Bondi.

“The basic premise of moving back to Brisbane was we acquired a new dental centre, Philippa did, and I’m also going to expand our creative agency into the Brisbane market as well. The second reason is we’ve got a little baby daughter Victoria (seven months old) and we’re moving back closer to family. And it’s a lower cost of living compared to the eastern suburbs of Sydney.”

They plan to rent out their two bedroom Bondi apartment for $1200 a week – which is about the same cost as renting a two storey Queenslander in Brisbane’s inner-city.

“The average house price in Bondi is just ridiculous, so it excludes a lot of people from buying. So getting a beautiful house in Ascot which is the premier suburb in Brisbane for us, very eastern suburbs, our dollar will travel further.”